Satan's Work
Have you ever tried to calculate the square miles of advertising space given to the vending of alcohol? Do you ever ponder how many precious lives end in drunkards' graves through these advertisements and how many deaths are caused by persons under the influence of drink?
Over the broken bodies and lost souls of this multitude Satan can boast that "It pays to advertise." To counteract the devastating effect of massive hoarding advertisements, every Evangelical Church should feel responsible for a large public hoarding bearing the pure Word of God in prominent print.
Have you ever tried to calculate the acreage of space devoted to the exploitation of sex and sought to estimate the present and eternal havoc wrought in consequence, both among saints and sinners?
Instead of Wisdom's voice being heard "in the places of the paths" (Proverbs 8:2) warning the foolish and inviting them to the gospel feast, Folly sports her seductive charms and millions are being demoralized and lured to eternal ruin.
Young men and women are being seduced into drunkenness and consequent immorality through the unscrupulous advertisements of these agents of Satan, while Christians, thoughtless and unseeing, cruise by in their cars enjoying the beauties of nature.
While Satan makes his moneyed appeal to the eyes and ears of his victims, we Christians recognize the sound as the roar of the destroying lion, yet how little we do to alert his hapless victims.
In all the vast acreage of Satan-inspired advertisement we very rarely see a scripture poster. In our busy towns, cars, vans, buses, and all kinds of vehicles bear witness to men's faith that "it pays to advertise." Every commodity under the sun is commended to our consideration, yet Jesus Christ, Who is Heaven's Life-giving Bread and the Found of Soul-satisfying Water, both to angels and men, is so feebly commended to the starving multitudes. The streets of our towns and villages are always busy with the untiring efforts of salesmen plying their wares and whose efforts are well rewarded, yet how rarely does a representative of Jesus Christ knock at the sinner's door to deliver a free Gospel messenger, commending to the aching, empty heart the free gift of God which is eternal life (Romans 6:23). Have you ever noticed the vast number of papers and periodicals on your local bookstalls and tried to calculate the terrific power behind it all to distract fickle man's attention from God and his eternal welfare? Against this mass of literary garbage have you ever tried to balance the weight of sound Gospel literature which we offer to those so evidently hungry for reading matter? How insignificant is our contribution to the reading public. How little we value our Savior. Truly "the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light."
Multitudes queue at picture-house and theatre doors and are catered for by enterprising musicians and newsvendors who all reap a rich reward. Where are the ambassadors of the King of kings meantime? Sad to say, many of them are also at the theatre or picture palace through the medium of the radio or the TV.
—from a tract